Mother Li touched her stomach, having also eaten her fill. “I’ll go for a stroll outside, then come back to rest.”
Li Min busied herself clearing the low table so her mother could get off the heated brick bed.
Li Zhengguo looked tenderly at Tian Jing. This home was filled with vitality because of her. He was grateful for his rebirth.
Tian Jing’s gaze swept over. Li Zhengguo quickly composed himself. “Is there anything you need me to do?”
Tian Jing held up two fingers. “One, find the stone mortar, wash it clean, and two, make me several wooden boxes, about thirty centimeters tall. I plan to grow pumpkins in them.”
“Okay.” Li Zhengguo smiled happily.
Tian Jing turned and walked out. Why was she smiling like a fool?
Li Min helped her mother walk a couple of rounds by the doorway before ushering her inside, as she still had chores to do.
The pumpkin in the kitchen pot was already steamed. After removing it and washing the pot, she added water and put it back on the stove.
Li Zhengguo, taking advantage of the sparse foot traffic outside at noon, picked up the basin of pumpkin covered by the bamboo steamer and cloth that Tian Jing had prepared, and quickly left the house.
Li Min looked at Tian Jing. Seeing that Tian Jing paid no mind to her elder brother’s actions, she couldn't help but ask, “Sister-in-law, how can you be so calm?”
“I have to learn to play deaf and dumb. Otherwise, people will find you annoying, and might even turn on you later.”
She had encountered too much in the apocalypse, situations where she was resented for various inexplicable reasons, which often happened to her.
She had learned to play deaf and dumb; this was a universal social survival rule. As long as it didn’t cross her bottom line, everything was negotiable.
“Are you saying my brother would turn on you?”
Li Min’s question almost made Tian Jing choke on her saliva. She didn't want to talk to this naive person. “Hurry and wash the pig liver, cut it into five or six pieces, and blanch it in boiling water.”
Li Min promptly went to work. Sister-in-law seemed a bit annoyed. She’d better keep quiet and just do her chores.
Tian Jing began to cut the meat and fat.
By the time the pork was cut, Li Min was also calling her. She took out the blanched pig liver, scooped out the water from the pot, washed the pot, added fresh water, and urged Li Min to add firewood as she continued to cut the pork fat.
When the water boiled, she instructed Li Min. The pig liver went into the pot, along with star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, salt, ginger, scallions, garlic, and a splash of white wine.
“Alright, let it simmer on low heat. Go to the cellar and get forty to fifty sweet potatoes, wash them, and also wash the kudzu root. After I’m done with the cleaver and cutting board, wash them clean before you cut them.”
“Why don’t I go borrow a knife? Two knives would be faster.” Li Min was impatient. Working with only one knife between them was too slow.
“That’s fine, go quickly and come back quickly.”
“Quickly go and quickly come back” turned out to be bringing someone back. “Sister-in-law, hehe, I let it slip. Sister Niu wants to come over and watch us work.”
“It’s fine.” Tian Jing didn’t mind. She wasn’t planning to hide anything. “You go wash the sweet potatoes. I’ll finish cutting the pork fat first. Sister Niu, you can go sit outside with Li Min for now. The kitchen is too messy.”
“No problem, no problem,” Sister Niu’s loud voice boomed. “I’ll go help Li Min outside.”
Tian Jing put the cut pork fat into the only enamel basin. This basin, missing a lot of its enamel, must have been used to hold lard in the past. Now, Li Min was using it as a soup tureen.
Looking at the grease on her hands, Tian Jing prepared to ask Li Min to get her some hot water. Li Zhengguo returned with the basin. Seeing her helpless expression, he hurried over to help. “I’ll do it.”
Using the wooden basin he held, Li Zhengguo scooped half a basin of hot water and grabbed a handful of plant ash. He first cleaned the cleaver and cutting board, then took another handful to wash Tian Jing’s hands.
Tian Jing tried to pull away, but he stopped her. “Don’t move. I’ll wash it the first time, and you can wash it yourself the second time.”
Tian Jing allowed him to wash the grease off her hands, even carefully cleaning under her fingernails. For the second wash, he indeed didn’t help, but he did help scoop hot water.
After cleaning off all the grease, Li Zhengguo took out a box of Vaseline and three facial oil sticks from his pocket and handed them to her. “Use these to moisturize your face and hands.”
“Where did these come from?” Tian Jing wasn’t trying to pry; she wanted to know if the production team had a supply store.
“I asked someone to bring them from the town’s supply cooperative yesterday.” Li Zhengguo’s earlobes were a little red. He had paid someone to go to the town’s supply cooperative. He couldn’t bear to be away from Tian Tian for too long.
“Thank you. Put them in my room, and give one facial oil stick each to your mother and your sister, so they don’t accuse me of being a thief again.” Tian Jing was still unhappy about Li Min arguing with her over the toothbrush and calling her a thief.
“I’m sorry. My sister, she… she gets very little, and she was instigated by Zhang Fangcao…”
“It’s okay.” Tian Jing waved her hand. “Don’t I seem to have forgiven her because she’s so foolish? It’s just that one shouldn’t be afraid of scarcity but of inequality. Since there are only women in the family, you can’t be too biased. If you have money, buy her some daily necessities as part of her dowry, or sell that one.”
Tian Jing’s casual attitude made Li Zhengguo think for a moment. He nodded in agreement. “In a few days, after you’ve finished what you want to do, I’ll take you to the county town.”
“Oh, great! Let’s go while Li Min is still home. We can prepare some things for winter. Oh, dear,” Tian Jing’s excited mood deflated. “I don’t have coupons.”
“We’ll go to the black market,” Li Zhengguo whispered in her ear.
“Can I buy everything there?”
Tian Jing planned to sell things at the black market and might buy some things too, but she wanted porcelain bowls and enamel basins, as well as toothbrushes and toothpaste.
“What do you want to buy?”
Tian Jing listed everything she wanted to buy.
“There’s a product called ‘clearance item,’ do you know about that?” Li Zhengguo couldn’t help but lightly tap her nose. “I know someone at the county supply cooperative who can get clearance items.”
Tian Jing swatted at the hand near her nose, but Li Zhengguo retracted his hand too quickly, so she missed. She widened her eyes and glared at him. “Don’t be so rash next time.”
“Okay, okay.” Li Zhengguo quickly agreed, rubbing his fingers behind his back.
“Hurry up and do your work. You haven’t completed any of the tasks I assigned you.” Su Dan Novel Network.
Tian Jing ordered with a hint of anger, yet she felt a pang of guilt, as if she were guilty of something. What was she guilty about?
Carrying the cutting board and cleaver out of the kitchen, she found Li Min still washing sweet potatoes. Tian Jing began to cut the cleaned kudzu root stalks.
Sister Niu helped Li Min wash sweet potatoes while watching Tian Jing’s movements.
“Sister Niu, it’s just cutting into small pieces, no technique required. Once you see me do it, you’ll get it, absolutely no technique.” Tian Jing chatted with the busy-eyed Sister Niu as she cut.
“Hehe, that Zhengguo’s, I…”
Sister Niu seemed a little embarrassed. If Li Min hadn’t said she needed a cleaver to cut the kudzu, she wouldn’t have known that kudzu root stalks could be made into food.
In times of scarcity, upon hearing that the vines commonly used for bundling firewood could be made into food, she had shamelessly come asking.
“Am I being too much? This is your skill, after all.”